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Brightwater, a new regional wastewater treatment facility near Seattle, was officially dedicated in September. The facility will serve the northern portion of the King County Wastewater Treatment Division’s service area.

The Brightwater regional wastewater system includes a state-of-the-art advanced wastewater treatment and reclamation facility, 19 km (12 mi) of underground conveyance pipelines, and a marine outfall in Puget Sound. The 136,000-m3/d (36-mgd) membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment plant is one of the largest MBR installations in the world.

The 49-ha (120-ac) treatment plant site, reclaimed from automobile wrecking yards, has been transformed into a parklike area incorporating streams, wetlands, trails, overlook structures, and an environmental education and community center.

The facility will produce Class A reclaimed water for reuse. Initially, a 26,500-m3/d (7-mgd) reuse facility will be provided. Space is reserved onsite for additional water reclamation up to 79,500 m3/d (21 mgd). Reclaimed water will be used onsite for landscape irrigation, toilet and urinal flushing, and a water feature. Reclaimed water also will be distributed offsite to other users.

Work on the facility began in 2002 with CH2M Hill (Englewood, Colo.), in partnership with Brown and Caldwell (Walnut Creek, Calif.), leading a team of more than 20 firms to deliver preliminary design, final design, and services during construction.

The Animal Health division of Bayer HealthCare LLC began using a wastewater treatment system at the company’s U.S. headquarters in Shawnee, Kan., in January 2011 that already has saved more than 3.8 million L (1 million gal) of water. The proprietary treatment system enables the company to reuse approximately 75,700 L/d (20,000 gal/d) at its production facilities.

The treatment system filters water through carbon-adsorption tanks, where organic contaminants are removed. The treated wastewater is then transferred directly into the Shawnee facility’s cooling towers, where it is used for office-building temperature control and process temperature control in the production facility.

This process modification reduces the company’s need to use city water for makeup to the cooling towers and also reduces the volume of wastewater sent to the local municipal treatment plant.

Previously, wastewater from the manufacturing process was only treated by adjusting its pH level. After tests were conducted to confirm the wastewater was within the proper pH range, it was sent down drains into the municipal sewer system for further treatment at the local municipal treatment plant.

In August, improvements began at the Schofield Barracks Wastewater Treatment Plant on Wheeler Army Air Field in Oahu, Hawaii. The project includes upgrading sewer pipeline — which will be the main wastewater conveyance for Schofield Barracks to the treatment plant south of Wheeler Army Airfield — constructing a transmission main, a booster-pump station, and a 3.8-million-L (1-million-gal) storage tank.

Aqua Engineers Inc. (Kalaheo, Hawaii) is conducting the work under a 50-year privatization contract with the U.S. Army to own, operate, and upgrade the Schofield Barracks wastewater systems. Since 2006, the Schofield Barracks Wastewater Treatment Plant has been the largest, privately owned R-1 facility in Hawaii, producing premium recycled water for irrigation.

The project employs more than a half-dozen firms from Hawaii and will create as many as 50 construction-related positions while replacing aging infrastructure. More than $25 million is being spent on the initial phase of the project.

The Little Blue Valley Sewer District (Kansas City, Mo.) in October announced that it has chosen to install the TrojanUVSigna™ open-channel wastewater ultraviolet (UV) light disinfection system at its Atherton Wastewater Treatment Plant. Trojan Technologies (London, Ontario), which manufactures the devices, will supply three channels of UV banks. The UV system will disinfect an average of 197,000 m3/d (52 mgd), with a peak capacity of 568,000 m3/d (150 mgd).